Leadership in a digital world

It's imperative that leaders become the change agents for their organisations

That advancements in digital technologies are disruptive in nature is a given situation. And with digital technologies making substantive forays, leadership plays a pivotal role, deciding the course of digital adoption and business growth in a rapidly changing business environment.

 

There is a perceptible difference in leadership styles among top executives of those who are digitally savvy and those who are not and this becomes a distinguishing factor between winners and losers. Top executives in a business entity are like the ‘first responders’, navigating the challenges of digital technologies and leading the path for adoption down the chain. In fact, they are not only ‘first responders’ but also continue to be in a ‘command and control’ situation, albeit with a difference wherein digital technology helps narrow gaps faster than ever before, be it in communication, be it in business processes, be it in manufacturing. This is far removed from the top-down approach and leaders are finding that open organisations are able to grow faster in a collaborative environment. In the digital era, the fundamentals of leadership have not changed, but the rapid expansion and deployment of social and digital technologies have changed expectations and performances in the organisational set up.

 

Digital technologies while collapsing old models of an organisation are creating new dynamic models that are in sync with the fast paced environment. In this context, leadership indeed plays a catalytically role and effective leadership gets determined by digital elements wherein role specifications and obligations get far more nuanced. Although these new elements are mainly applied to the top organisational leaders but the elemental principles are pertinent at all leadership levels.

 

Grasping technological innovations and adapting quickly is going to be the mantra for success. However, it is for the leadership to quickly figure out how digital technologies open up revenue-generating possibilities, improves communication and collaboration. Accordingly, the leadership should deploy technologies that spur innovation, streamline operations and improve performance of the workforce and the organisation, per se.

 

In a highly inter-connected world, digital transformation of an organisation does not limit itself to those in leadership positions, it encompasses the entire system. However, facilitating digital transformation falls in the lap of the leaders and they must recognise that the process of becoming a digital organisation generally requires a holistic, integrated, and mindful approach to produce optimum results. It is imperative that they become the change agents for their organisations and create and cultivate internal governance structures while giving the workforce to collaborate and innovate.

 

This places enormous responsibilities on the leadership, as both ‘first responders’ and ‘command-and-control’ position they have to understand the technology trends and issues, beyond the obvious levels. Importantly, leadership is all about understanding the risks that come along with digital adoptions and managing them, both formally and informally. In this highly competitive and fast changing business environment, leadership is all about effective communication using the new channels and tools available and communication that is collaborative, formal and informal, but certainly not top-down.  

He is Executive vice-president, head of India Operations, VirtusaPolaris Corporation